S. Awan is a failed journalist, a student of history, a lover of music, film, culture, and an enthusiast of the the controversial and the weird.
Also a musician, and part-time freelance, involuntary human being. Also occasionally lives on the moon. Also is a ghost. And a cigarette butt that hasn't been put out properly; so, you know, there's still, like, smoke coming out of it and stuff...

Posts Tagged ‘Nirvana’

As a lifelong Nirvana fan, it has always stuck out like a sore thumb to me that the single ‘Lithium’ never had a proper music video.

It was in fact the only single from Nevermind that didn’t have a proper video: ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, ‘Come As You Are’ and ‘In Bloom’ all had what are now pretty iconic videos to accompany them.

For so iconic a song as ‘Lithium’ to not get a video always felt a little incongruous. Not that music videos are important necessarily: but if there had been no videos for Nevermind, it wouldn’t have felt like an issue.

It’s the fact that ‘Lithium’ was the odd one out. That song was one of the defining pop/rock songs of its generation; and the single came out at the height of ‘Nirvana mania’ in the middle of 1992. (more…)

“You mean like a funeral?” the producer of Nirvana’sMTV Unplugged session asked, in regard to the black candles and stargazer lillies Kurt Cobain had requested to decorate the set. “Exactly. Like a funeral,” said Kurt.

It’s difficult to tell whether Nirvana’s unplugged show would have acquired the legendary, mythic status it has, whether it would’ve resonated so poignantly, were it not for the fact that within five months of the show Kurt was no longer with us.

While Glastonbury has been getting headlines recently, it’s worth saying that the Reading Festival has over the years had probably just as many classic performances and awesome line-ups (if not more). Just look at some of the Reading line-ups twenty years ago; 1994 and 95 alone were like a wish-list of incredible artists, the likes of which you’d have a hard time compiling in 2014.

And no Reading Festival performance has acquired so much legendary mist around it, become so lionized and referenced, as Nirvana’s 1992 headline set.

“The song is about a person who’s beyond depressed; they’re in their death bed, pretty much.” This was what Kurt Cobain said in a 1993 interview with Impact, concerning the song Pennyroyal Tea; the Nirvana single that never was.

Inspired initially by Free Comic Book Day, the now-annual institution of Record Store Day takes place this 19th April in various countries. Record Store Day 2014, as was to be expected, already has a bunch of interesting releases in store (or literally IN store) for collectors and aficionados, including items from Nirvana, The Doors and the Pixies.

“This is not pop music,” REM’sMichael Stipe says, as the beloved frontman inducts his friend Kurt Cobain’s unmatched band Nirvana into the Hall of Fame. “This is something much greater than that.” Leave it to Michael Stipe to sum it up perfectly. Krist Novoselic thanks all the Nirvana fans. Buzz Osbourne and Chad Channing both get a shout-out. Punk rock veterans Joan Jett and Kim Gordon come to the party. And no one cares about Kiss or Peter Gabriel.

So five days after the 20th anniversary of the day Kurt Cobain departed, here we are now; Nirvana have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, in an event everyone was talking about but hardly anyone was able to actually see.

Tonight, twenty years after Kurt Cobain chose to burn out and not fade away, Nirvana are being inducted into the Hall of Fame. But at this time that’s seeing a major swell of Nirvana-related stories and Cobain-related controversies, I say forget for now the conspiracy theories, forget the upcoming Soaked In Bleachmovie, forget that stupid statue in Aberdeen, the frequent celebrity nonsense of Courtney Love, and all the other extraneous distractions that float about Kurt Cobain’s legacy; the greatest part of Kurt’s legacy remains musical and cultural. Kurt’s first, most important legacy, is his music.

The second – and the subject of this post – is his influence on the culture and sub-culture of at least two generations, if not a third.

In commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of Kurt Cobain‘s death and Nirvana’s impending induction into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame on April 10th, The Burning Blogger continues to celebrate Cobain’s genius and Nirvana’s legacy, leading up to Thursday’s ceremony.

Now obviously there’s pretty much an ocean of Nirvana material and footage out across the worldwide web. For a lot of us, bootlegs used to be the thing; either that or waiting for official releases. I used to devour my Live! Tonight! Sold Out! VHS tape in the old days, pouring over every detail, memorizing every clip like a fucking trainspotter. Not that that wasn’t fun. (more…)

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